Synopsis:

During the chaotic filming of an adaptation of Medea in Senegal, the German actress Maja finds refuge in an affair with her partner Nourou. A few months later, they meet again at the film's premiere in Berlin. While the ancient tragedy plays out on screen, a modern drama unfolds in real life...

Reviews:

"One of the strengths of 'Gavagai' lies in its way of filming Dakar: whether it's the behind-the-scenes of the shoot or the scenes of the film within the film, the digital sharpness of the photography seems contaminated by the bubbling of the city." Critikat

"By mixing the narrative of Nourou and Maja's reunion with that of the film's presentation at the Berlinale, Köhler blurs the tracks. The festival decorum, an expression of economic or social privileges, interferes with the intimate. The sentimental story is constantly displaced to the periphery of the narrative, its romanticism hindered by other stakes." Cahiers du Cinéma

"In 'Gavagai' there is the acceptance by Nouro, Maja and Lescot of being in a vast washing machine of greenwashing consciences, a world that keeps quiet to please, a world that accepts being the useful pawn of an established order." Culturopoing.com

"The author of 'La Maladie du Sommeil' orchestrates here with corrosive tenderness a synergistic mix of genres that alternates drama of ordinary racialization, the disintegration of feelings, and an ironic painting of cinematic creation." Le Nouvel Obs

"In a masterful staging, Ulrich Köhler unravels, not without a certain cynicism, the dance of appearances in the middle of the overrated and smooth universe of cinema. A necessary thumb of the nose against all forms of racial and social discrimination." aVoir-aLire.com

"If the time of the shoot more or less protected from the noises of the outside, the overflows within the team created the beginnings of chaos. In the more muted setting of a prestigious festival, the suddenly exposed work brutally reopens wounds. An intriguing self-reflective work." Première

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